With Joe Danger, the small team at Hello Games has managed to create a fast, …

Share this story

With sprawling epics and giant development teams dominating the gaming landscape, sometimes it's nice to be reminded just how much fun games can be. Created by a team of just four people, Hello Games' Joe Danger does just that, combining elements from several classic games with a more modern presentation and gameplay to create an experience that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

The titular Joe Danger is a once-famous stuntman, who, thanks to a career-crippling crash, is now nursing a potbelly and a broken ego. But he's now primed for his triumphant comeback. That's the set-up for the game, and it's about all the story you'll need.

Title

Joe Danger

Developer

Hello Games

Publisher

Hello Games

Price

$14.99

Platform

PSN

The game has you traveling through a series of events, completing challenges along the way. Each stage has multiple challenges to complete, ranging from collecting every mini-star in the level to hitting every target to collecting the letters D-A-N-G-E-R. Completing a challenge will net you a gold star, and collecting these allows you to unlock additional stages. What's great about this setup is that it offers you the freedom to tackle the game however you want. You can attempt to get several stars in one go, or you can return to the stage multiple times to collect them one at a time. And if you get stuck, you can simply move on to the next stage.

As a game starring a stunt racer, a lot of Joe Danger is about pulling off tricks to rack up high scores. You can do flips, wheelies, and all manner of stunts in an attempt to increase your score, but pulling off tricks is also necessary for filling up your boost meter, a necessity when you're in one of the racing stages. The physics of the game aren't particularly realistic—you can actually move left and right while in mid-air using the shoulder buttons—but the cartoon style soon becomes second nature.

Surprisingly, for all the speed and stunts that the game offers, Joe Danger also features a good deal of exploration. Several stages have hidden stars, and finding them is no easy task. Sometimes you'll actually have to slow down or even go in reverse to collect them. The mixture of racing, exploration, and stunts helps give Joe Danger an incredible sense of variety.

All of this amounts to a game that feels both fresh and familiar at the same time. Joe Danger is a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and you'll frequently be reminded of classic games while playing. When you race through a loop collecting stars, it feels like Sonic, and when you chain together tricks into one insanely long combo, you can't help but think of Tony Hawk. And the Mario references are plentiful, from the hidden stars and the timed coin chases, to the familiar chime when you hop into the air grabbing stars.

That's not to say that Joe Danger doesn't have its own personality. Far from it, in fact. The game's Pixar-infused aesthetic is full of slapstick humor, from a billboard featuring a tea-swigging dinosaur to Joe himself. The star of the game has plenty of personality, and this is never more evident than when you take a massive spill. Joe's various crash animations are hilarious and help dull the sting of not landing that combo.

At $14.99, Joe Danger is at the higher end of the pricing spectrum when it comes to downloadable games. But it's well worth the price. The game features an incredible amount of content that rivals most retail releases. The single-player campaign is lengthy enough, and you'll be playing each stage multiple times in an attempt to earn all the gold stars and rack up increasingly huge high scores. But when you factor in the numerous split-screen multiplayer modes and the robust, easy-to-use level creator, you find a game that you'll likely be playing for quite some time.

At first glance Joe Danger may look simply like a modern take on Excitebike, but it's much more than that. Combining elements of an extreme sports game, a platformer, and a racer, the game is able to create a unique experience that's absolutely packed with content and dripping with cartoon charm. And, more importantly, it's a game that is simply a joy to play, and one that will leave you with a smile on your face the entire time you're playing.